One or the Other
by moonswirl
Summary: Gleekathon, day six hundred and sixty-seven: With the possibility of Joanie having to move away with her mother, Shelby is there for them.


_Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a 2nd cycle, and then a 3rd, 4th, etc through 31st cycle. Now cycle 32!_

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><p><strong>Hear that little bird twitter!<strong> _Been thinking about doing this for a couple days, then this morning decided to just go for it. If you go there, find 'gleekathon' and there I'll be. There's also a video explaining everything... Yep... ;) Check it out!_

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><p><strong>"One or the Other"<br>Shelby & Beth, Emmett & Joanie, Shelby/Emmett  
>[Sequel to 'Ready or Not'] <strong>

They saw each other, as they always did, though the subject they were ignoring still hung in the air. If Joanie noticed anything, she never said a word… But then before long there was something else on her mind, much bigger than this.

It began one Saturday morning, as Emmett's ex brought their daughter back. Shelby had been feeding Beth her breakfast when she heard the car door slam, and she just managed to look out the window in time to see Joanie stalking up toward the house, while a woman came from the car to meet Emmett at the door. She assumed this was Nicole. Shelby had never met her, but the way Joanie had it, she wasn't missing much.

She knew she shouldn't have intruded, even just watching, but she could feel... something was happening. Joanie yelled some words she couldn't make out at Emmett before running into the house. Shelby put the spoon down, standing as she watched Nicole say something and, whatever it was, it made an emotion emerge from the usually mild-mannered Emmett that she'd never seen: anger, rage. He was yelling, too, and it wasn't just anger… She thought she saw distress…

She jumped when she heard the back door, and she barely had time to turn and ask herself how she hadn't seen her cross the yard before Joanie was in her arms, holding tight, and… crying? "Hey, what happened? Joanie?" she hugged back with one arm, brushed at her hair with the other.

"I hate her!" she cried.

"Yeah, I noticed that," Shelby sighed. "What did she do now?"

"Shelby, have you seen…" a new voice came now, and there was Emmett, also coming in through the back door. She looked up, pausing as her eyes met Emmett's. He still looked to be working back from his face-off with Nicole, but now he was with Joanie, with Shelby and Beth… He was safe.

"Joanie…" Shelby looked down to the girl, trying to get her to see her father was there. "What happened?" she asked, once again, hoping someone would finally answer.

"Nicole and her new husband are moving to Arizona," Emmett revealed. Shelby looked down to Joanie, still in her arms, and now the sadness grabbed her, like it had grabbed the father and daughter.

"She's not really thinking about…" she looked to Emmett, unable to pry herself from the girl, at the thought that she could ever be gone… not when they had become so close… all of them. "Emmett, you can't let that b…" she stopped, looking to Joanie, to Beth. "She doesn't even care," she went on, calling back the first time Joanie had really opened up to her about this.

"Don't you think I know that?" Emmett got to pacing. Joanie finally looked back to him, eyes puffy with tears. "It's not going to happen."

"It's not?" Joanie sniffled, begging.

"JJ… I fought for you before, and I won with good reason," he moved up to her, and Joanie moved from Shelby's arms to her father's. There's no way she's taking you anywhere," he promised her, and seeing his face Shelby could see he was promising himself the same thing, promising Shelby… He knew it would hurt her nearly the same as it would hurt him, if she ever went away…

And now the pieces were sliding into place. It wasn't about discovering feelings… she knew those. She knew she loved Emmett, for better or for worse. She knew that Joanie had become part of her life, in a very dear way… And she knew Beth saw them as part of her family, too.

So she knew about her feelings… But up to this point, maybe she just couldn't let them exist… out there… for who she'd been, who she was trying to be, and who she didn't want to be anymore… This had made her have to not push but nudge Emmett back, making him wait for her mind to catch up to her heart.

"Hey, can you give me a minute to talk with Shelby?" Emmett looked to his daughter. She gave a small nod, moving to sit with Beth, willing herself to smile for the baby, so she wouldn't see anything was wrong. So Emmett took Shelby aside. "Would you mind keeping her here while I sort this out?"

"Yeah, absolutely," Shelby touched his arm, "Go." He nodded, started to move away. "Emmett?" she spoke rapidly, before he could leave. When he looked back at her, she didn't have to say a word, and he didn't have to either; her eyes told him she was in, to give things a try between them, if he would still have her. His eyes, the smile that just barely managed to show itself under the circumstances, said that, yes, he most certainly was. For now though, they had to resolve this situation with Joanie.

Shelby watched Joanie play with Beth, while they waited. The stress could be seen if you knew to look, but at least they had lightened the mood. It wouldn't be until late that evening that Emmett would return, and by then Joanie had fallen asleep, curled up on the couch with Panda.

"How's she doing?" he asked, crouching to look at her.

"She's okay," Shelby promised. "She had lunch, dinner… watched movies…" she revealed, then, "Have you worked it out?" she had to know. He stood, looking back at her… and smiled.

"She's staying with me," he confirmed, and Shelby let out a heavy sigh of relief, moving to hug him. The embrace held, both in knowing how close they'd both come to losing Joanie, but also because of their silent realization with each other. After the near miss they had, a few weeks before, it would take a moment for everything to settle in, but for certain they would remember this day as having forever changed their lives. They didn't know how it would turn out, but they could hope… Maybe it would be the day they remembered, years from now, as the day they became family.

THE END

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><p><strong>PICK A NAME! - ROUND TWO<br>**_New character currently in development, and I'm being indecisive, so I'm putting it to all of you lovely people!  
>Please send via message if you can, the name you like best... [Once you've voted in round two, you can't change it ;)]<em>

_After the bottom three were eliminated, we get this! So you have a new vote!_

Brendan  
>Ewan<br>Neal  
>Rory<p>

_Thank you! :)_

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><p><strong>AN: This is a one-shot ficlet, which means that signing up for story alert will not bring you any alerts.  
><strong>**In the event of a sequel, the story will be separate from this one. And as chapter stories go, they are  
><strong>******always clearly indicated as such [ex: "Days 204-210" in the summary] Thank you!******


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